The Heavy Stuff

The Heavy Stuff (THS) welcomes you back for another mind excursion (do you remember the 1960’s ` psychedelic quartet’ Tradewinds version?) into the very fabric of speculation about realities mysteries  - today’s topic - strange highness. Yes, you read that right.

Strange Highness is THS’s proposed new term,  and, is not the same as the common Fortean term of `High Strangeness’, or, is it? Indeed, one will find by reading excepts below that both `strange highness’ and `high strangeness’ seem to have some, or perhaps many, overlapping spaces.

First, just a few words about High Strangeness (this should be familiar to most THS readers we know). Frankly, if you are not familiar with the term it’s one of googles best searches; you will be gone on a several hour reading trip if you have never researched the term. And, to summarize in a few examples is impossible - (but) it can be as simple as fish falling out of the sky; to, a Bigfoot that vanishes in front of your eyes; to, a Ufo landing where the alien walks up to you and asks what time it is; to, being rescued by a tow-truck that leaves no tracks in the snow.

You get the idea - impossible(ish) events in `normal consciousness’. Indeed, all these examples have one thing in common - NO drug descriptions - these are all described by `normal’ folks who are not `hitting the bottle’, or for that matter, any other substances. Right?

After all, if it was the `rantings’ of a USER - the credibility is gone - right? Objectivity would be ruled to be not in play. So, for those that report `strange events’ - a persons `straightness’ - is what makes them High Strangeness. Isn’t that strange?

But, of course, other folks have `impossible events’ too - while under the influence.

Specifically, while under the influence of `mind altering substances’ - indeed, `reality altering substances’ - leading to the area of space THS wants to now refer to as `Strange Highness’. Specifically, strange highness will refer to the esoterica and entities which have been supposedly encountered when credible humans enter `altered states of consciousness’ - via substances.

It should also be mentioned that the experiences described below of the extremes of what could occur when using mind altering substances — are NOT the norm; probably with any of the substances. Most reactions to these substances at minimal dosage are tolerable to enjoyable for most folks interested in such experiences. That said, again, extreme `reactions’ can occur at `normal’ dosage too - discouraging, wisely, the majority of humans from usage of any of these substances - even liquor only scratches 50% users. So, it should be noted that  THS wants to look closer at only those rare space occurrences - of strange highness.

Indeed, the examples are so numerous the question is -  where to begin….. Perhaps the first mention should go to the research done on DMT at the University of New Mexico in the 1990’s and the findings that suggest some experiences are very similar to the description of alien abductions – some users had simulated encounters with entities not of our normal consensus of thought.  Here’s a quote from Wikipedia about the substance that was man-made first in 1931:

Several subjects also reported contact with ‘other beings’, alien like, insectoid and reptilian in nature, in technological environments^[6] where the subjects were ‘probed’, ‘tested’ and sometimes even ‘manipulated’ by these ‘beings’ (see Abduction phenomenon).

 ”technological environments” - love that terminology.  And all this - right in the lab -so to speak. Strange Highness Indeed.

And, the bad news for those that want to believe in alien abductions out of ones bed - is that most likely, their brain (the abductee) supplied the `space’ for the event. That is NOT to suggest that the person didn’t experience the event OR that the event wasn’t REAL at some `real’ level. Just that the `event’ did not likely occur outside of the bedroom walls.

Additionally, this does NOT really address the much rarer `abduction reports’ that occurs in public places - supposedly (nearly always at night of course in lonely areas - with strong exceptions such as Travis Walton’s experience).

So, because of the similarities of DMT and the abduction experience the verdict is that at least one aspect of High Strangeness can be `explained’ by the Strange Highness Spaces of  extreme substances. But that is only one example of many.

Such as, of course, the many word of mouth stories, decades ago,  of the preferred hallucinogen of the 1960’s - LSD.  From the noting by users of changes to the normal perceptual landscape (moving walls, sharper colors, impossible objects) for an individual - to `shared realities’ with other trippers (shared landscapes not of this world) - the product-chemical,  produced spaces with , indeed, strange highness. Again, quoting Wikipedia:

Some psychological effects may include an experience of radiant colors, objects and surfaces appearing to ripple or “breathe,” colored patterns behind the eyes, a sense of time distorting (time seems to be stretching, repeating itself, changing speed or stopping), crawling geometric patterns overlaying walls and other objects, morphing objects, a sense that one’s thoughts are spiraling into themselves, loss of a sense of identity or the ego (known as “ego death“), and powerful, and sometimes brutal, psycho-physical reactions interpreted by some users as reliving their own birth.^[9][40] Many users experience a dissolution between themselves and the “outside world”.^[41]This unitive quality may play a role in the spiritual and religious aspects of LSD. The drug sometimes leads to disintegration or restructuring of the user’s historical personality and creates a mental state that some users report allows them to have more choice regarding the nature of their own personality.Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and temporary dissociation.While THS could point at many of the above descriptions - THS would like to focus on the LSD chemical interaction `disrupting time’ (and space, things) — this is long before the `missing time’ syndrome or experience reported with some remembered `high strangeness’ - and UFO experiences too. So, time-distortion, literal distortion - can be said to be shared between strange highness, and its counterpart, high strangeness. (Is it the Matrix, yet?)Certainly, other researchers have pointed at other extremes of plant-chemical usage by third world indigenous tribes of various areas.

Additionally, Native Americans (and so would say traditional Hippies and Heads) have known for time immemorial  that chewing certain mushrooms or ingesting peyote buttons, - can lead to spaces of special enlightenment - here’s how Wiki describes that:

The effects of psilocybin are often pleasant, even ecstatic, including a deep sense of connection to others, confusion, hilarity, and a general feeling of connection to nature and the universe. Bad trips may occur when psychedelic compounds are taken in a non-supportive or inadequate environment, by an inexperienced person, in an unexpectedly high dose (see: set and setting), or when the substance triggers difficult areas of one’s psyche.

At low doses, hallucinatory effects occur, including walls that seem to breathe, a vivid enhancement of colors and the animation of organic shapes. At higher doses, experiences tend to be less social and more entheogenic, often catalyzing intense spiritual experiences. For example, in the Marsh Chapel Experiment, which was run by a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School under the supervision of Timothy Leary, almost all of the graduate degree divinity student volunteers who received psilocybin reported profound religious experiences

Strange Highness, Indeed. 

Once again, the link here could be described as the ONENESS felt by the `straight’ high strangeness experiencer - and the - `non-straight’ experiencer of strange highness. Seems the altered states can be reached via either avenue of ones approach to ones consciousness. Whether the outcome is demons or oneness.

But all those areas of `strange highness’ can be beyond the reach of the average person who doesn’t know the difference between a tomato plant and a squash plant - or who doesn’t forage for native plants - or  who wants to travel to strange lands. That would be most of us, right?

So, how about, the legal stuff - and it’s links to Strange Highness –  THS will start with the result of the nations most popular mind altering substance - liquor - but, not just liquor - extreme liquor usage - the DT’s - here’s a description - quoting Wiki:

DT’S - The main symptoms are confusion, disorientation and agitation and other signs of severe autonomic instability. Other common symptoms include intense hallucinations such as visions of insects, snakes or rats (or stereotypically, pink elephants). These may be related to the environment, e.g., patterns on wallpaper that the patient would perceive as giant spiders attacking him or her. Unlike hallucinations associated with schizophrenia, delirium tremens hallucinations are primarily visual, but associated with tactile hallucinations such as sensations of something crawling on the subject - a phenomenon known as formication

In reading about the outer edge of the liquor stupor and bugs - one is reminded that other drugs have outer limit  stupors that include huge Praying Mantislike creatures. Or, is all this - the bugs on the skin - nothing more than the DNA memories of beings who woke up in caves 700 generations ago with bugs crawling on their faces - the memories of FEAR. Even the fear of being eaten by more larger more formidable species.

Also, as another example and still legal in many parts of the country and the world is the new buzz substance being read about in many newspapers - with lawmakers scrambling to `protect’:

Salvia Divinorum” quotes Daniel Siebert’s summarisation, mentioning that the effects may include:^[35]

An example of salvia-inspired Visionary art

• Uncontrollable laughter.
• Past memories, such as revisiting places from childhood memory.
• Sensations of motion, or being pulled or twisted by forces.
• Visions of membranes, films and various two-dimensional surfaces.
• Merging with or becoming objects (for example a Ferris wheel).
• Overlapping realities, such as the perception of being in several locations at once.

A survey of salvia users found that 38% described the effects as unique. 23% said the effects were like yoga, meditation or trance

THIS DOES NOT SOUND LIKE SOMETHING FOR JUST ANYONE AND IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT - JUST AN EXAMPLE.

Finally, there are, of course, reports of `crazy folks’ literally using toxins and poisons (this is complete sickness - some would say that to use any of them would be crazy and dangerous) - to reach so-called enlightened states of being with one’s consciousness. Areas, places, spaces, where special knowledge supposedly exists. And all, in the land (space) of Strange Highness.

And nearly all of them  - illegal in most states and countries. Indeed, do not venture into the land of Strange Highness - as it may just be the space - that abutts the land of High Strangeness.

Comments?

Thanks for reading - please visit my blogroll and make sure to see my webpage with the best anomalies of 2006 and 2007 - www.squidoo.com/anomalyman2006 - Finally, thank you to the fine websites that link to this post.

One of the most bizarre of all human reported `anomalies of the reality structure’ involves the human experience of `missing time’. My guess is that no one who reads this blog or who comes to this blog from another link of similar material doesn’t know of descriptions of this phenomena. But, for the few who have never heard of this — an individual `arrives’ at a location of which the travel should have taken X amount of minutes; but, instead — several hours has passed. Some impossible time-frame (the hours for minutes is only an example) for the events of the human observer during that period.It’s literally as if ones continuum is normal and free-flowing — but the result — is anything but `normal and free-flowing’ — it’s as if the structure of reality permitted `time’ to `speed up’ for that person.

Those very familiar with this whole phenomena know that it often; BUT NOT ALWAYS; goes `deeper’ than a normal reality consciousness experience. Often this phenomena occurs during a UFO sighting — for others – this kind of phenomena (UFO) is `recovered’ during hypnosis of the `missing time’ event. Perhaps even more interesting to me is that personally I don’t remember anything about the missing time phenomena before UFO’s - arrived in literature. I anxiously await someone to draw to my attention this description of `time-flow’ in a period prior to 1947. It certainly seems more than a casual connection — that said — again — there are those who have this kind of experience and  who DON’T have UFO connections to the `space-time’ event.

It’s at this point that I’d like to make a physics connection to the missing time phenomena that until I write these words I’ve never seen in print. I’d like to make a positioned guess about what seems impossible — but — must be occurring to some humans to produce this `missing space’ experience. READY?

Well, one of the most known but amazing things known about traveling at the speed or near the speed of light is that `time slows down’ — if you remember — that is how the imaginary `spaceman’ goes 99% of the `speed of light’ (really the speed of time - or - relative flow of actualized space) for years into space but when he returns to Earth he finds that hundreds of years have passed and all his relatives are dead. It’s one of the wildest and true statements to come from all the esoteric thoughts of science over the last few centuries. Time-space is NOT flowing the same for all-spaces —- such as the `space’ of a `spaceman’ going near the speed of light.

Now, obviously, when folks `miss time’ - with or without the UFO experience — isn’t it possible that `their space’ — literally, the atoms which represent `their space’ within the time-space continuum — could be `removed temporarily’ from the continuum and `accelerated’.

Yes, I’m suggesting that literally the `space’ which is John Doe - `when exposed to some unknown element’ — be it UFO’s or the `space thing’ that represents the ability to `accelerate spaces’. (Perhaps something moving already at the near light speed which slows down for a moment and captures the `spaceman’ which is US.)

No wonder folks don’t remember the `missing time’ part — the `space’ which is US would be traveling at a rate it never has before. No wonder our brain would not function as a proper recording device under such circumstances. Especially a brain equipped to only record every 10 or so impressions out of the 100 or so our brain records every second.

But, obviously, the `missing time experiencer’ is not going to distant stars and returning centuries later. But, and this is scary to put into print — many `missing time experiencers’ are missing only an hour or two at most. (That is except for the amazing description of Travis Walton’s amount of `missing time’).

So, what I’m saying, is that when all other ideas have been eliminated, about an anomalous event like missing time — why not look at the science side for an explanation. This seems exactly like that to me. Again; a `UFO device’ traveling near the speed of light - is able to `isolate an individual space on a planet - at a given moment’ - the UFO device `takes’ the person on a `journey’ which when over  — the person returns at the same great rate of speed (time) — and conversely — is slowed to the current actualization speed of the event horizon.

And, guess what happens then? The consciousness of an individual realizes that one is `missing space’ to fill the `elasped time’.

What do you think - is this logical? Could `space’, literally the actual `space’ of a person, be `removable’ from the `flow-speed’? And, as Carlos Castaneda used to ask Don Juan “what happened to my body when I became a crow” — the question is what, if anything, happens to the perceivable space we call ourselves during such an anomaly occurrence with the reality structure?

Much more phenomenology to come from this blog - and, if you like the heavy stuff — you’ll love www.squidoo.com/theheavystuff– my `other’ anomaly lens on Squidoo.